The BBC announced enthusiastically Wednesday that “what may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.” This news is not only of interest to scholars and Muslim intellectuals; it appears to buttress the Islamic claim that the Qur’an’s text has remained unchanged for 1,400 years – which is purported to be proof of its divine origin. There is only one problem with all this: the BBC article raises more questions than it answers, and reveals more about the wishful thinking of the academic and media establishments than it does about the...

One news event that may have passed most people by last week was the election of Tim Farron as leader of the Liberal Democrats.The party, which was once Britain’s third largest, was decimated in May’s General Election, losing all but eight of its 57 seats, completing a brutal period of decline while it was in government alongside the Conservatives. The inquisition began the morning after Farron’s election when the BBC’s John Humphreys asked him if he would “seek advice from God when it came to making important policy decisions”. Farron accused Humphreys of focusing on “the shocking revelation that a...

A damning catalog of multi-million-pound waste within the BBC is exposed for the first time today by The Mail on Sunday. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal a climate of “feckless” excess and extravagance—including millions spent on first class travel. The figures expose a revolving door culture in which staff are given large redundancy payments and then rehired at exorbitant rates, as well as overpayments leading to vast sums of license fee payers’ money being wasted. […] The news of BBC excess comes at a time when the beleaguered Corporation is facing the prospect of root and branch...

Was watching BBC Europe yesterday -flicked it on the the hotel for five minutes while unpacking- and the amount of left wing pom-pom shaking they can pack into a brief period of time is just about any intellectually-honest person can stomach... And that's regardless of political bias -like we never knew The Beebe leaned to the left. But it's relentless these days... I used to admire their professionalism and world coverage in the 80s/90s, as I still do the Telegraph, etc. British press is in many ways superior to my own country's, imho- even car magazines, i.e. CAR was a...

Early July saw Britain basking in a brief heatwave, with air temperatures across much of south and east England hitting the mid 30s centigrade. On July 1, the Met Office announced that the UK had recorded the hottest July day on record, with temperatures hitting 36.7° centigrade at Heathrow airport. The claim was widely repeated in the media—the BBC’s headline read “Hottest July day ever recorded in UK”, while The Guardian opted for a live blog under the headline “Heatwave live: Britain swelters on hottest July day on record”. But eagle-eyed climate bloggers immediately spotted a problem with the so-called...

Even before the BBC’s new documentary on last summer’s war in Gaza airs, the broadcasting organization has admitted that it distorts the truth in order to make the Palestinians appear more sympathetic. The documentary, entitled “Children of Gaza,” aims at depicting how Operation Protective Edge affected children living in and around the Gaza Strip. The program has not yet aired, but according to the Jewish Chronicle the Palestinians’ testimonies were mistranslated in order to cover up frequent anti-Semitic comments. The Palestinian children regularly used the word “yahud,” meaning “Jew,” when talking about their enemies. The BBC’s translators insisted on changing...

David Cameron today called on the BBC not to use the phrase 'Islamic State' when referring to the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria. The Prime Minister - who calls the group 'ISIL' - said Muslims would 'recoil' at the phrase being used to justify the 'perversion of a great religion'. He insisted that the battle against extremists targeting Britons around the world can be won but will require 'extraordinary resolve and patience'. Gunman Seifeddine Rezgui targeted tourists at the Tunisian beach resort of El Kantaoui near Sousse on Friday morning, killing 38 people including up to 30 British...

Global rumours sparked by BBC staff member's errant tweetThe BBC apologised today for accidentally sparking Twitter rumours that the Queen had died. Rogue tweets were sent while the corporation was staging a dress rehearsal for reporting the death of the Sovereign. One stated: “Queen Elizabrth [sic] has died.” Buckingham Palace was forced to issue a statement reassuring the public that the Queen was in good health. The incident happened during one of the corporation’s regular rehearsal for broadcasting the Queen’s obituary which BBC bosses had asked staff to keep off social media. A tweet from the account of Ahmen Khawaja,...

Chris Evans has signed a three-year deal to replace Jeremy Clarkson as the presenter of Top Gear, the BBC says. The broadcaster decided not to renew Clarkson's contract in March after it emerged he attacked a producer on the programme at a hotel in North Yorkshire. Evans will lead an all new line-up, the BBC said.

Long before Frank Underwood, there was Francis Urquhart. Ian Richardson stars in this sublime political thriller from the BBC. Long-serving and highly respected Tory Chief Whip Urquhart has hopes of a spot in the new PM's Cabinet. When those hopes are dashed by the new - and rather feckless - Prime Minister Henry Colingridge (David Lyons), Urquhart begins to have his own ideas of how to run a country...

When I met Rachel Dolezal, I found it easy to accept her description of her ethnicity. Along with BBC correspondent Jonny Dymond, I talked to Dolezal in 2011 in a coffee shop in Spokane, Washington, while producing a BBC World Service documentary on a surge in extremist militia activity in America. She told us that she was of mixed racial heritage but that she primarily identified with her black ancestors. She matter-of-factly listed the abuse she says she received at the hands of racists, including threats, break-ins, and nooses being left at her workplace. At no time during our hour-long...

A BBC documentary depicting Winston Churchill as a drunken enemy of the working class has been branded as ‘graceless’ and ‘ill-informed’ by his grandson. Churchill: When Britain Said No, broadcast on BBC2 last week, was an account of how the wartime leader lost the 1945 General Election. It showed him as a deeply hated figure among the working class, in part because of the harsh economic policies he pursued as Chancellor in the 1920s. The most vocal critic of Churchill in the programme was a man presented as ‘activist and writer’, Dave Douglass. He said of Churchill: ‘His role during...

Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, has claimed that the British Government "tried to kill" Andrew Gilligan. Reporter Gilligan broke the story that British intelligence had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq that sought to justify Britain's support for US-led invasion of the country. "The Government tried to kill him," claimed Dyke about Gilligan, who was forced out of his job at the BBC in January in the wake of the Hutton report that inquired into the death of scientist David Kelly. Kelly was the main source for Gilligan. Dyke was speaking at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature...

“BBC under fire after Home Affairs Editor Mark Easton ‘compares extremist preacher Anjem Choudary to Gandhi and Mandela,’” by Steph Cockroft, MailOnline, 14 May 2015: The BBC is under fire after the Home Affairs Editor appeared to compare notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

The BBC was feared to have fallen victim to an ISIS cyber-attack this evening as 'hackers' appeared to post Islamic State propaganda during a live broadcast. Viewers were left stunned as the words 'Je suIS IS' appeared on TV screens following a feature on the BBC News Channel. Above the red and white writing was the word 'CYBERCALIPHATE'.

Nigel Farage has accused the BBC of “clear and evident bias” after he came under pressure over the quality of Ukip’s general election candidates. A number of Ukip candidates have been accused of making inappropriate comments and one was caught up in an expenses scandal, but Farage blamed Tory defectors to the party for causing the problems. He criticised the BBC for asking him about them, saying other party leaders were not grilled about their rogue candidates.

Former Top Gear presenter says being sacked by the BBC was a ‘wake-up call’ as he joins host of celebrities backing climate change campaign The disgraced former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has become the latest celebrity to support the Guardian’s campaign for fossil fuel divestment. Following what he described as a “dark night of the soul”, Clarkson said he hoped to “regain the trust of the British public” by dedicating his time and financial resources to sustainable energy, road safety and forging mutual understanding and tolerance between people of different cultures and religions. The 54-year-old said that the “fracas”...

Alleged death threats made against BBC director general Tony Hall are being investigated by the Met Police. Lord Hall is reported to have received a threatening message after dropping presenter Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear because he had punched a producer. The Mail on Sunday also reported Lord Hall and his wife were under 24-hour protection from security guards at their Oxfordshire home. …

A BBC radio presenter vented his anger on air after losing his slot on a mid-Morning show because he is engaged to a Conservative MP standing for re-election. John Darvall proposed to Bristol North West MP Charlotte Leslie on Christmas Day, two months after the pair began dating having first met on his show four years ago, the Bath Chronicle reports.Having kept the decision quiet, the twice-divorced presenter revealed his anger during a phone in regarding the BBC’s decision to fire controversial presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

WHY? WHY? WHY?That is what your humble correspondent wants to shout at the computer screen while watching this BBC Mundo report presented by Daniel Pardo in Venezuela. Pardo actually has a good idea, namely to see how long it takes to buy eight basic home products (yes, including toilet paper) while waiting on the notoriously long lines in that country. Unfortunately he does not inform us "why" the situation is so dire even though the S-word providing the answer is proclaimed on wall posters all over that oil-rich but impovershed nation. Therefore Pardo is this week's winner of the John Chancellor Avoidance of...

Jeremy Clarkson, Bête Noire, of the left in the UK, may have gone too far this time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson It appears that early March 2015, he was involved in an argument with one of the producers of the show 'Top Gear' which he presents, which ended with Clarkson swinging a punch at the producer. Clarkson's co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond managed to hold Clarkson back. Clarkson appears to have attempted to patch things up with the producer afterwards but to no avail. He then reported the incident himself to the BBC management and wheels began to turn. The BBC suspended...

Top Gear could have stayed on air without Jeremy Clarkson - but his co-hosts reportedly refused to present the show without him. James May and Richard Hammond were offered the chance to front the motoring show during Clarkson’s suspension, according to a BBC executive. Discussions were held about broadcasting the last three episodes with mainly recorded segments while the two co-stars filmed the studio parts. However the BBC insider told the Mirror that May and Hammond rejected the offer and refused to go on air without their long-time colleague. The source said: "They didn't want to do it without Jeremy...

Jeremy Clarkson made light of his suspension by the BBC, as an online petition for him to be reinstated topped 500,000 signatures. The Top Gear presenter told reporters he was "just off to the job centre" as he left his home in London.

The corporate media have swiftly moved on from Peter Oborne's resignation as chief political commentator at the Telegraph and his revelations that the paper had committed 'a form of fraud' on its readers over its coverage of HSBC tax evasion. But investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed has delved deeper into the HSBC scandal, reporting the testimony of a whistleblower that reveals a 'conspiracy of silence' encompassing the media, regulators and law-enforcement agencies. Not least, Ahmed's work exposes the vanity of the Guardian's boast to be the world's 'leading liberal voice'. Last month, the corporate media, with one notable exception, devoted extensive...

Journalists and media organisations have warned that the jailing of three correspondents for Al-Jazeera English by the Cairo regime was intended to intimidate others from reporting freely on events in Egypt. The jail terms of between seven and ten years for Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were met with outrage from veteran correspondents who have reported on the Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, said the verdicts and sentencing were a blow to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. "This is also at least partly designed to intimidate other journalists, and...

The pigheaded refusal to acknowledge that sometimes the ends justify the means reflects Europe's moral impoverishment. Dahu Khalfan Tamim now has a world-class reputation for detective work. The head of the Dubai police swiftly determined that Hamas’s Mahmoud Mabhouh did not die of natural causes at the five-star Bustan Rotana Hotel on Jan. 20. He was assassinated. Let’s for the sake of argument grant that Israel did away with Mabhouh; that he was not killed by Iran or over some intra-Palestinian dispute, and that clues pointing to Israeli culpability are genuine. Mabhouh certainly deserved to be assassinated by Israel. Hamas...

The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of twelve cloned British passports in a Dubai murder, the BBC has learned. Foreign Secretary David Miliband will make a statement to Parliament later. Israel has said there is no proof that its agents were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January. Diplomatic sources stressed the British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder. However Mr Miliband had demanded that Israel co-operate fully with the investigation into how the passports were obtained. The foreign secretary is to make the statement...

Watching the horrible video of Alan Johnston of the BBC broadcasting Palestinian propaganda under orders from his kidnappers, I found myself asking what it would have been like had he been kidnapped by Israelis, and made to do the same thing the other way round. The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself significant. But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did...

A BBC mole has sent me this briefing for BBC staff from the BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, on what lies ahead this year. It’s all too predictable. The "fragmentation" of Palestinian society has, in Mr Bowen’s view, nothing to do with the Palestinians and everything to do with Israel (“the death of hope, caused by a cocktail of Israel's military activities, land expropriation and settlement building – and the financial sanctions imposed on the Hamas led government”). Indeed, Israel is to blame for almost everything. The Palestinians are not responsible for anything; Israel is the culpable party. He...

Israel has warned residents of southern Lebanon that it will escalate operations there as it continues its campaign against Hezbollah militants. In leaflets dropped by Israeli planes, it says its forces will destroy moving vehicles in an area south of the Litani river, 30km (18 miles) from the border. Israel launched about 80 air strikes against Lebanon overnight. Hezbollah fired more than 140 rockets on Israel. Diplomats at the UN are discussing a draft resolution to end fighting. An Arab League delegation is expected to push amendments to the draft, including Lebanon's demand for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. The current...

It's that time of year again. Summer is here, the temperature outside is rising, and Israel's irresponsible critics are busy turning up the heat. Deploying a potent mix of selective amnesia combined with some good ol' fashioned obfuscation, these "amnesiacs," as I call them, would have us all believe that nothing good ever came from the 1967 Six Day War. Seizing upon this month's 40th anniversary of that heroic triumph, they are trying to rewrite the historical narrative, injecting as much gloom and doom as possible in order to push Israel into making still more concessions to the Arabs. Occupation,...

Tough Lessons For Obama On Mid-East Peace The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen considers how the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taught US President Barack Obama hard and humiliating lessons. Nearly 500,000 Jewish people live in settlements built on occupied territory. The land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has great sunsets. One the other day turned the sky from deep blue to pink, then angry orange, and flaming red. The fading light glowed on the roofs of the expanding and illegal Jewish settlements that run, like little fortresses, along the mountain spine of the West...

More than 100 MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win, local press reports say. All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up, the reports say. A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls. Meanwhile, Mr Ahmadinejad has told the US not to interfere in Iranian politics, the Fars news agency reports. "I hope you [US President Barack Obama] will avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express regret in...

Speaking to the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said terrorism would flourish everywhere if the US attacked Syria Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also told the BBC that armed groups backed by America - not Syrian troops - had used chemical weapons. The US says it has evidence that Damascus used the nerve agent sarin in a deadly attack in August Mr Mekdad told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Damascus: "Any attack against Syria is support for al-Qaeda and its affiliates, whether Jabat al-Nusra or the State of Islam in Syria and Iraq." Jabat al-Nusra...

Syria rebels gain foothold in Damascus By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, Damascus When the BBC team approached a checkpoint set up by the rebel Free Syria Army in the suburbs of Damascus, masked men with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades moved towards us - a few of them offering dates and biscuits. It is customary to give mourners something sweet, and a funeral was about to start that they said they were protecting. I had no idea before I saw them with my own eyes that the Free Syria Army was so active in and around Damascus....

A BBC correspondent in Syria has said the battle for an ancient Christian town is continuing, despite reports that government forces had retaken it. Jeremy Bowen said that a heavy gunfight with rebels was continuing in Maaloula, with smoke rising into the sky. He added that he had not seen evidence confirming religious sites had been damaged by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists. Then on Sunday, activists said government soldiers and pro-government militiamen had been forced to pull back to the outskirts following a fresh rebel assault. Fighting over the town, 55km (34 miles) north of Damascus, began last week after rebels attacked...

What next for Iran? Scores of Iranian MPs have snubbed President Ahmadinejad's victory party according to local press reports. What next for Iran? All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of the country following the recent disputed presidential polls. Hundreds of opposition protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody and at least 17 people have died in the unrest that followed the 12 June election. Severe reporting restrictions...

Israel has laid out an ambitious war aim. It says it wants to create a new security environment, to protect Israelis who live within range of rocket fire from Gaza. It wants, according to one official, "to neutralise the Hamas militia men" so they can no longer fire into Israel. In the last day, the way Israel believes it can do that has become a little clearer. The air strikes have tried to kill as many Hamas fighters as possible and to destroy the infrastructure of power and governance that Hamas has been trying to build since it took over...

Israel 'to announce ceasefire' Air strikes continued in Gaza as Israel prepared to announce a truce The Israeli cabinet is set to back an end to offensive military activities in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after attacks began, the BBC understands.Israel's leaders are expected to approve a ceasefire at a meeting later on Saturday, after which PM Ehud Olmert will address the nation, sources said. The sources said the ceasefire deal did not involve Hamas. It is not clear how Hamas will respond; its officials say the group will ignore any truce unless its demands are met. Ahead of the...

Egyptian troops have opened fire on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi marching in Cairo, killing three people and wounding dozens more. The shooting came as crowds moved on the Republican Guard headquarters, where Mr. Morsi is believed to be held. Later the Muslim Brotherhood's leader told supporters that protests would continue until Mr. Morsi was reinstated. The army, which removed Mr. Morsi on Wednesday after days of unrest, denied firing live rounds at demonstrators. However, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen at the scene says he saw soldiers fire on the protestors on Friday. About 2,000 people had marched on the...

BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen was shot in the head and leg today as demonstrations in Egypt ended in bloodshed. He was wounded as tens of thousands of people took to the streets over the ousting of president Mohammed Morsi by the military. Islamist leaders had called for a day of rage across the country after a military coup deposed Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

The BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, has rejected allegations that he is anti-Semitic after he tweeted an offensive message against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his speech to Congress last week. As Netanyahu was speaking, Bowen noted that he had mentioned Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, and added, “Once again Netanyahu plays the holocaust [sic] card”. Bowen immediately faced attacks on Twitter over his comment and, on the Jewish Chronicle website, Alan Johnson wrote that Bowen’s comments were a “bloody disgrace”. …

The leader of the Muslim group who defended ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi has sparked further outrage after he refused to condemn the stoning women. Asim Qureshi, the director of Cage, was last night quizzed about extremist positions advocated by Muslim scholars - including female genital mutilation, domestic violence and stoning as a punishment for adultery. But Mr Qureshi, appearing on the BBC's This Week programme, failed to speak out against the practices - while also defending the right of Muslims to wage jihad. It comes after he defended the London-raised fanatic Emwazi - unmasked as the infamous fanatic 'Jihadi John'...

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

Channel 4 was last night accused of anti-democratic ´fear-mongering´ for airing a controversial drama about what life would be like with Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. UKIP: The First Hundreds Days painted a highly-critical vision of Britain under UKIP rule, including a country divided by race riots, mass unemployment and a crashing economy. Channel 4 said it ordered the drama - which lampooned UKIP, its leaders and its supporters - as a way of engaging people in politics in the run-up to the May General Election.

Two days ago's Question Time on BBC1 was one of the worst I've ever seen, beating its own record of mendacious and appalling programmes. The panellist George Galloway described fascism as a "Christian phenomenon", whereas it's a well-established historical fact that Nazism was neo-pagan, tried to destroy Christianity in Germany and persecuted Christian clergy and churches. The very symbol of the SS, the SS bolts or Runic "SS" (), consisted of runes, signs popular in Germanic neopaganism. Nazism wanted to replace Christianity with a "völkisch" (folkish or racial) cult, a moral doctrine derived from the pre-Christian, pagan Germanic heritage....

Egypt's top court had in January ordered a retrial of the three men. But an Egyptian official told Agence France-Presse news agency on Sunday: "There is a presidential decision to deport Peter Greste to Australia." Another official told Associated Press the release had been co-ordinated with the Australian embassy in Cairo. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says Egyptian law requires those deported under these circumstances to either finish their sentence in their home country or be put on trial again there, and it is unclear whether the Australian authorities have agreed to that. Al-Jazeera has demanded the release of...

British media has long been accused of a strong anti-Israel bias, and even generating anti-Semitism. Those claims have surfaced once again when during an interview with UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis for International Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, a TV anchor with Sky News went as far as to suggest that Israel “fuels anti-Semitism.” The anchor, Adam Boulton, began by asking whether the fact that “people revisit this issue” of anti-Semitism is “because of Israel.” In response, the rabbi explained that anti-Semitism far pre-dates the establishment of the renascent Jewish state, and in fact can be observed from the beginning...